OTHER OPINION: Boston, prepared, heroically responded

All hearts have been with Boston this past week – and eyes glued to the scene as police closed in on the remaining marathon bomber.
Few moments in history have been as gripping to watch in real time as the lockdown in Boston’s suburbs, swat teams splayed on porch roofs, men in camouflage on sidewalks normally used by families in sneakers.
Such horrors seem to be visiting us faster than the nation can prepare for them, or even conceive of them.
Yet there’s comfort in knowing that authorities had managed to stave off terrorism strikes for a dozen years until Monday.
In Boston, first-responders and spectators saved lives with their fast, brave work. Dozens of people ran toward the blasts, not away from them, to help. A surgeon from Florida, there to watch his daughter run, used his belt as a tourniquet on a man’s severed leg. Bystanders like Joe Andruzzi, the ex-lineman for the New England Patriots, carried strangers to safety and staunched their wounds.
Ironically, the bombings have shown how far this nation has come in protecting itself. Boston may be unique in its preparedness.
Because the city is considered by the Department of Homeland Security as one of the top 10 targets for terrorism, it’s had two citywide disaster simulations in the past two years.
And then there are Boston’s famed Level 1 trauma centers – hospitals – so close by. They were treating victims within 30 minutes of the blast.
No doubt that even more sophisticated security measures will be used from now on at sporting events and schools. The public will be protected from bombs and bullets at places they’d never before thought of as unsafe.
But we should be grateful that we have been so well-protected till now. And that we have heroes in our midst to help us when the inconceivable does happen.